 so hello everybody welcome back to yet another episode of our series rising stars which profiles the emerging talent in the music industry and today on this episode we have with us jashna munkar a classical singer we welcome you ahead to do namaste namaste thank you so much for this week for the sweet introduction and so jashna my first question to you is that what ignited your passion for classical music and how it has shaped your musical journey so far so music has been part of my life ever since i can remember i'm formally training in classical music since i was four years old today i'm 31 years old so it's basically there was never a time in my life where i was not learning music from a very young age i was very inexplicably drawn towards classical music so i was always fascinated with any music that would play anywhere you know i would go somewhere and i would i would be fascinated with with uh if somebody's playing it live or it would play on the tv or the radio so i would always like all kinds of music which i still do but every time there was you know the classical kassur javi bachtha tha that that very peaceful the source of classical music wherever i used to hear them i used to feel that they are already mine that music is already mine and i wanted to be more at one with it since a very young age and i didn't my family has always been my pillar of strength and very supportive of my musical journey but as such we have no musicians in the house so it was actually up to me to tell my parents that i really feel drawn to this so you know i would like to learn this formally and and work the path ahead here so yeah like i guess i was you can say i was born to sing and i'm doing just that and very very happy to be on that path so who was your biggest inspiration my biggest inspiration till today is my guru so i started learning in a very traditional way and and and went to multiple gurus before i finally went to my idol who's Ganesh Saraswati Srimati Kishori Amonkar she was a legend and iconic figure she was a Padma Vibhushan of course she's not physically anymore but we're trying our best to carry her legacy forward so i still remember the first time when i heard her i was already learning music already by then and i was maybe 12 or 13 years old and i heard her live so till today i can remember everything that she sang and and and how i felt at that time even if i remember that moment and though that day i get goosebumps you know even today so that is she's always been my biggest inspiration um and when i learned from her i i realized that she was much more and beyond music so you can say that she taught me everything about life and not just music yeah that's great that's great so can you elaborate on the emotional and artistic depth that classical music offers compared to other musical styles in your opinion and do you think this is a very uh tough genre to be i think those questions are related to each other is that the depth uh depth that classical music offers is uh also what makes it very very tough and that is on two levels uh all the music is beautiful i myself think commercial music i myself think guzzles among the you know in fact a lot of my tracks which have released have been non-classical so all music is beautiful but what sets classical music apart is that firstly it is very minimalistic and what does the Tanpura give? Tanpura has only two notes and i neither punch them or munch them so it only gives you the the basic pitch and basic uh and for rhythm you have tabla you have to play a lot of drumming it's very minimal you don't have an orchestra of 15 people you don't have a co-singer or duet or it is very very minimal and you have to create impact through that so what is the way to do it is you can only do it if you look very very deep within and i think it's a very easy thing to do it takes a lot of strength and grit to do that and all the years of riyaz and training that classical musicians go through is not just for the technique of course the technique is also difficult you have seen you know what the great ustads how they sing it is not possible to sing that way but beyond that it is a journey of spirituality of introspection and that is what makes it very very tough so the minimalism and then and then it's the demands of the art form to look within yourself is what makes it very very tough but then once once you get into that zone it's also the most beautiful and most rewarding space so it's the simplicity basically sorry simplicity minimalism absolutely simplicity yeah yeah yeah so tell us about your latest releases some of those songs you have done it and tell us about it more so honestly in the last one year ever since the pandemic ended especially because you know in the pandemic there was no live performances happening but since the pandemic opened up there has been a huge surge of live classical music concerts and and and their quality has you know the way they are done the settings the sound system the setup as well as the audience numbers a lot of people are going you know to there are some new cultural centers that are open in Mumbai also and a lot of youth is also going for those experiences now so I have personally been very very caught up in those kind of live performances like I performed at Kala Koda festival earlier this year and there were a few of the previous forums where I performed but in the middle of all of that I did release a Marathi song earlier this year and it was on Mother's Day the song was called T-80 Sandhani so basically it translates to that it was dedicated from me to my mother and all all mothers it said that in this whole sky mama you're my only shining star so I think that's the way I feel about my mom and I guess we all feel that about our mothers and mothers because yeah that's great that's great so do you have any favorite pieces or compositions within the classical genre or what makes them particularly meaningful to you any particular favorite thing I think the I think the emotion emotion of the classical music composition makes it really makes it very I'll sing I'll sing one for you if you don't mind yeah okay it's it's something that I'm currently doing Riaz also it's really fresh in my mind and I'll you might not understand the composition at first but once I explain it to you you might get that's beauty so yeah because of the twists and turns it's not obvious to understand but what this is saying it's saying something so simple and this is not a very deep or philosophical composition it is saying ki paanana viri means paan and bidi these simple small things is all that I want of you and why because every small thing that comes from you even in fact as simple if you give me a paan that is going to be delicious for me that's going to be very rang rangila rangil for me and the simplest things of life are much better if they come from and that's the that's the romance that is expressed in this composition so this is the once you start understanding the subtlety of the emotion like which goes beyond the words which goes beyond the tunes and beyond the structure what is it that the composers are actually trying to say a whole new world opens up and and and then you know you can really revel in this beauty yeah that's great that's very great so that was very thoughtful thank you so much so let's know what were some of the challenges you encountered during your journey and how did you manage to overcome them to with like continuing this path so far what I think I think I think being brought up in the 21st century and pursuing classical arts comes with its own challenges though though I was very lucky to have a very supportive family my friends also they have never given me you know they have never given me any grief for say missing a party because I had to do riyadh or I had a concert the next day so I have always had a supportive ecosystem and was very lucky but just the flow of life you know what the modern life demands of you it goes against the calmness and the discipline that is needed for classical arts so there were many times where it was very very difficult to keep up you know when you're 17 and 18 though your people around you are being supportive but you yourself feel like getting distracted there are so many things that come your way and at that time to to then carve out six hours to to cancel everything and to sit at home and do six hours of riyadh in a very disciplined way you have to fight against yourself more than any anyone else so I think that was the main challenge the other thing was I learned from two legendary figures so a kishori tai I spoke about but before that I learned from Dhodu Tai Kulkarni who was also a very very legendary figure in the world of Indian music they were both almost 85 years old when I went to them so I was 16, 18, 20 like that and they were 80, 85 and also I was finishing my chemical engineering education in the US and UK at that time so that whole back and forth that you know I would the day my exams would get over there I'd fly back during vacations and then I would essentially go and live with my gurus I'd not leave them for even even a day while I was here so that back and forth was very very challenging and I think now musically I have come to a point where even though there were times where I probably left music or wanted to leave music but music did not leave me so I think that journey has passed now and then we're in a very secular space me and my art has a very secular space where I know that that it's never going to leave me and I'm never going to let go of it but in terms of the performance circuit and everything it was a bit challenging for not for the audiences because every time I sang for people even now you know just say maybe it's nice you were smiling throughout my rendition which always makes me feel so good so I always get a lot of love from people but because you know I look this way I don't look like a typical classical musician I've studied abroad and everything it was a bit hard at first for the traditional audiences of classical music and the traditional concert organizers to to accept it I think they still somewhere struggle with that they feel intimidated they feel that oh maybe he's he will say no to performing at our venue maybe it's beneath him maybe he's going to do whatever so those are some challenges which I which I faced and to an extent still face today in the classical music world but the more and more I put my music out there the more and more love I get from people so that's been that's been on the bright side very very rewarding also but just as being an independent artist you have done everything by yourself okay so as being an independent artist it makes really tough to make it in the industry you know it so can you tell us about it more I think I think it is very challenging for an independent artist to make it in the industry absolutely absolutely today it is it is definitely challenging when you don't have the backing of Bollywood when you don't have the backing of record labels and and the likes like that at the same time I would say that today it is a great time for indie artists also because the live like we discussed the live performance circuits have have are booming like never before there is a you know there is a there are so many music festivals there are so many gigs that keep happening throughout cities and if somebody I personally by my own choice and by by God's grace because I have other sources of income I have not had to sing at weddings and and private shows or corporate shows that way I don't do that by choice but there is nothing wrong with doing that in fact it's really good that people get to reach a wider audience that way and for an indie artist they can easily earn in many many lacks you know they release a very good if they release a four or five songs that is an investment which they have to do first and if one or two of those songs really really pick up then they get a lot of live shows in which they can easily get a steady source of income and of course if if they keep working on their art form getting better and better and keep evolving and becoming better artists they will be called for more and more such shows so those opportunities were not there earlier they were not there so much earlier so many performances live at so many settings were not happening earlier and and there were not so many opportunities for digital collaboration cross-genre collaboration cross-country collaboration which people have now so I in fact I see up absolutely normal and stable life so inherently you have to be a little bit crazy to be a musician or to be an artist and then when you're here here you have to be prepared for those challenges but that said today is a very good time I feel for the for a foreign independent musician yeah and also the other thing sorry I'm maybe maybe overshooting your answer but because I really feel a lot about this today because of social media also you know there is there is an information overload on one hand at the same time you can directly be connected with your audiences and if you look at my instagram also there are so many 18 to 25 year olds who who you will see in comments or my dms they say that okay you know bhaiya because we were not listening to classical music but because now we find you very relatable we have started listening to it so that's very heartening to see and and if you can connect with audiences that way then I think like half your purposes is served as an artist that's great so other than classical music you do you really want to try any genre of music I'm very big into guzzles and devotional music so I'm a spiritual person and I'm also religious by nature so I love singing religious things especially marathi abhangs are very close to my heart and I'm harashtian also so that makes a lot of sense and then guzzles is something which is very which has fascinated me my guru pushed me into studying guzzles so it was her in fact like before she passed away it was her last wish from me that beta abh guzzles ka ka kati padai karo and mere baad usko matlab tum ache se samaj na aur gana so that's something which I've tried to do you know as per her footsteps and her message to me and and I'm very very connected to that genre I like experimenting a lot I'm always up for experimental never say no for anything but in the end mojhe soor chahiye jaha pe soor nahi hai vaha pe mera dil nahi lagta mojhe shayat sunni me bhi pasand hai I really you won't believe I love listening to even the street side hip hop and rap and everything because in the end that is also art they are also expressing something they have so many emotions in them jo gully boys aur yeh sab ono ne kaata people are surprised that I really you know if you hear me listening to it I'll really enjoy it but if you ask me to sing something then it has to have a lot of sur pradhan ya jisko man vulte hum lo ki sur has to be the main thing in that so any future collaborations lined up any new projects there are a lot of new projects actually a lot of new projects I'm working on few devotional pieces and there are a few Hindi commercial songs that I'm working at and also a few Marathi for some production houses or possibly for a film or for a you know a theatrical production house that I've already signed with I can't reveal many details now but hopefully by late this year or early next year we should have some exciting news on that trend wow that's great all the best for that thank you or just any advice for the budding artist and a special message for your fans would you would like to give I think I am very thankful for all the love that everybody gives me and and through me to classical music so that that's something which I wake up and I'm grateful to God every day for and my message to other artists fellow artists would be that let's let's try to be our authentic selves as much as possible following trends and you know succumbing to the social pressures is one thing but in the end let's see that in every time there are things and people that have come and gone but who has lasted and and what are the qualities of the people and the music that has lasted so let us try to look at it let us look at asha ji today who is at 90 also still singing live and let us try to emulate those kind of musicians and and that kind of music that is that's going to you know keep going forever just thank you so much for your time it was our pleasure to have you here it was entirely my pleasure thank you so much for everything thank you so much